Somerville's 311 Is In the Mix for the Oh-Six

Long ago, when the happy promise of springtime filled the air, Bostonist told you that Somerville was making plans to be the first Boston-area municipality (and only the second in the whole Commonwealth) to implement a 311 phone line for non-emergency calls to city government. Back then, it didn't seem like much of a big deal. "Non-emergency calls to Somerville?!" you scoffed. "Forget that! It's the middle of May! I'm going to go drink beer and flirt with good-looking young people." But now, with winter holding you in its crushing, angry grip, the news that the system is actually up and running seems pretty exciting, doesn't it? OK, not really. But it's true: Somerville residents have now joined the illustrious ranks of New Yorkers, Chattanoogans, and others in being able to dial 311 for all their municipal needs.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this little story is the window it provides us into the seething discontent of Somerville's political blog commenters. The fairly innocuous coverage by Somerville News of the 311 line has provoked vigorous, angry debate (scroll down to the comments): If Bostonist read that the line's three operators had fielded 600 calls in two weeks, we'd think, "Hey, sounds good." But the commenterati were quick to note that that amounts to just one call every two hours, a shameless waste of public funds. And if Bostonist saw that the city was placing help-wanted ads, in English, seeking 311 operators who could speak Spanish, we would assume the city wanted to hire bilingual people. But the commenterati incisively recognized this as anti-American discrimination. It is surely a testament to the power of the internet that such a mild, unremarkable blog post can give rise to such a passionate outpouring of opinion and vitriol, no?

Photo courtesy of flickr.com / user: Charles Hoyes